Attitudes toward Drug Scale in Students: Assessing the Reliability and Validity

Objective: The present study aimed to develop attitude toward drug scale and to evaluate its validity and reliability among students. Method: The present research was descriptive-survey of tool development type. The statistical population of the present study included all the students at Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman in 2018-2019. Among them, 400 individuals were selected using quota sampling method. The development of the scale was performed in two preliminary and final stages. After a preliminary evaluation of the scale on 50 individuals and the removal of items that had an inappropriate clean coefficient and difficulty, the final scale of attitudes toward drug and the questionnaire to identify people at risk for addiction were completed. The factor structure of the attitude toward drug scale was examined using confirmatory factor analysis. Also, the reliability of the scale was evaluated using Cronbachchr('39')s alpha. The data were analyzed using SPSS-22 and Amos-24 software. Results: The results of confirmatory factor analysis showed that the scale had a three-factor structure (cognitive, emotional and behavioral factors) with an appropriate fit. Reliability using Cronbachchr('39')s alpha for the total scale was 0.86 and for its cognitive, emotional, and behavioral factors were 0.70, 0.73, and 0.69 respectively, showing good internal consistency. Also, the appropriate convergent validity of the scale confirmed the scale validity. Conclusion: The attitude toward drug scale is a valid and reliable tool among students and can be used as a screening tool to assess students at risk for addiction.